That sounds rather uncool. In my defense, it was a rare pick who (presumably) won this for me.Squire said:
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You should definitely make that your avatarfauniera said:That sounds rather uncool. In my defense, it was a rare pick who (presumably) won this for me.Squire said:
Armchair cyclist
Moderator
Re:
A very good CQ season for him: he won the Giro game, and was only stopped from winning the Tour game by Cimolai's 7th place on the final sprint. He won the minor ranking in the Giro, and was joint green jersey winner in the Tour.
Squire said:
A very good CQ season for him: he won the Giro game, and was only stopped from winning the Tour game by Cimolai's 7th place on the final sprint. He won the minor ranking in the Giro, and was joint green jersey winner in the Tour.
fauniera said:That sounds rather uncool. In my defense, it was a rare pick who (presumably) won this for me.Squire said:
Why is Mick Jagger wearing a viking helmet?
Update #42: kabete takes late-season win
We are near the end! The GC points from the last WT race of the year have been awarded, and it's just the tail-off of one .HC and one .1 race before we wrap it all up with a bow. Let's take a look at this week's results.
This Week's Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this week
1 kabete 306
2 Josedin 297
3 Eyeballs Out 271
4 LukasCPH 269
4 Slapshot 269
Every single team scored at least ten points this week, which is definitely the last time that will happen this year, given that barely any teams have riders in the last races this year. kabete comes out on top, with the Guangxi combo of Alaphilippe (100 points), Diller (89) and Gaviria (83) leading the way; 14 from Walscheid and finishing points from Konig (doubling his 2017 total!) and Doull puts it away. Josedin finishes second for the 2nd week in a row, with the Ala-Gav combo and contributions from Mareczko and Cavagna to fall juuuust short of the top spot. Eyeballs Out grabs the last podium spot with Diller/Gav/Landa/Bonifazio leading the charge.
This Week's High Movers
Rank Team up/down
1 abbulf (+7)
2 LukasCPH (+6)
2 kabete (+6)
2 Eyeballs Out (+6)
2 LightBing (+6)
Still a bit of jockeying to be done on the rankings, and team abbulf gets their name in lights this week! A 7-place jump just outpaces last week's winner LukasCPH, this week's points winner kabete, and two others tied with a 6-place jump.
Green Jersey Competition
Rank Team Total
1 Blues in the bottle 249
2 fauniera 226
3 GP Blanco 222
4 the asian 221
5 scrooll07 214
No changes here, as the highest place of someone who got points this week is 16th overall. fauniera just misses out on the points this week, and so remains in second place, but they have enough to celebrate, as we'll see below.
Top 10 Overall
Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) fauniera 15867
2 (-) the asian 15698
3 (-) GP Blanco 15217
4 (-) tom_jelte 14888
5 (+1) Hugo Koblet 14726
6 (-1) Kazistuta 14718
7 (-) HelgeBlendet 14709
8 (-) Wallenquist 14548
8 (+1) Blues in the bottle 14548
10 (-) del1962 14480
fauniera scored 210 this week to be the highest scorer in the top 10 and thus extend their lead; the asian was the second-highest scorer in the top 10, and GP Blanco the third-highest. The podium becomes even more solidified as a result. Hugo Koblet manages to jump a spot, and Blues in the bottle leaps into a tie(!) for 8th with Wallenquist.
Preview of next week - the three teams with Mareczko are going to do quite well.
Spreadsheet at dropbox
We are near the end! The GC points from the last WT race of the year have been awarded, and it's just the tail-off of one .HC and one .1 race before we wrap it all up with a bow. Let's take a look at this week's results.
This Week's Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this week
1 kabete 306
2 Josedin 297
3 Eyeballs Out 271
4 LukasCPH 269
4 Slapshot 269
Every single team scored at least ten points this week, which is definitely the last time that will happen this year, given that barely any teams have riders in the last races this year. kabete comes out on top, with the Guangxi combo of Alaphilippe (100 points), Diller (89) and Gaviria (83) leading the way; 14 from Walscheid and finishing points from Konig (doubling his 2017 total!) and Doull puts it away. Josedin finishes second for the 2nd week in a row, with the Ala-Gav combo and contributions from Mareczko and Cavagna to fall juuuust short of the top spot. Eyeballs Out grabs the last podium spot with Diller/Gav/Landa/Bonifazio leading the charge.
This Week's High Movers
Rank Team up/down
1 abbulf (+7)
2 LukasCPH (+6)
2 kabete (+6)
2 Eyeballs Out (+6)
2 LightBing (+6)
Still a bit of jockeying to be done on the rankings, and team abbulf gets their name in lights this week! A 7-place jump just outpaces last week's winner LukasCPH, this week's points winner kabete, and two others tied with a 6-place jump.
Green Jersey Competition
Rank Team Total
1 Blues in the bottle 249
2 fauniera 226
3 GP Blanco 222
4 the asian 221
5 scrooll07 214
No changes here, as the highest place of someone who got points this week is 16th overall. fauniera just misses out on the points this week, and so remains in second place, but they have enough to celebrate, as we'll see below.
Top 10 Overall
Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) fauniera 15867
2 (-) the asian 15698
3 (-) GP Blanco 15217
4 (-) tom_jelte 14888
5 (+1) Hugo Koblet 14726
6 (-1) Kazistuta 14718
7 (-) HelgeBlendet 14709
8 (-) Wallenquist 14548
8 (+1) Blues in the bottle 14548
10 (-) del1962 14480
fauniera scored 210 this week to be the highest scorer in the top 10 and thus extend their lead; the asian was the second-highest scorer in the top 10, and GP Blanco the third-highest. The podium becomes even more solidified as a result. Hugo Koblet manages to jump a spot, and Blues in the bottle leaps into a tie(!) for 8th with Wallenquist.
Preview of next week - the three teams with Mareczko are going to do quite well.
Spreadsheet at dropbox
Just checked my placement for the first time in months - outside top 100 yikes
Congrats fauniera
yikesCongrats fauniera
I'm fairly happy with a top 20 this year.
I do appear to be somehow steadily improving in this game even though I haven't been necessarily following cycling as closely as I used to. Actually, when it comes to picking riders, not being in the know might help to make a more objective judgement, given that you're not as likely to be caught up in hype trains. If I am on board of the bandwagon for some talent, I tend to be prone to overestimate their ability, but ironically when I try to compensate for that I sometimes err and avoid picking riders who I support because I think I might be biased in thinking they will be a good pick. Ironically not being into cycling as much might help you make a more distanced and objective judgment when for instance assessing who are the up and coming talents which might constitute a good pick. A few years ago I knew every significant talent already and had formed opinions about them throughout the season, but now I have to actually research it a bit and maybe this actually improves the calls I make whether or not to pick a talented rider. Anyway, I don't know, just some random theorizing.
It would be interesting to have some statistic over the years to see how well players perform in this game relative to how time they actually spend watching cycling throughout the year. To do it properly would actually be quite complex, because you can spend time on different things when watching cycling, e.g. following espoirs races or not, how much time you spend reading articles/forums etc. and you might have to take into account different types of picks, e.g. not following cycling as closely might give you an edge in objectivity when picking young talented riders, but you might be more prone to overlook a rider who underperformed due to a crash or ilness or something.
I do appear to be somehow steadily improving in this game even though I haven't been necessarily following cycling as closely as I used to. Actually, when it comes to picking riders, not being in the know might help to make a more objective judgement, given that you're not as likely to be caught up in hype trains. If I am on board of the bandwagon for some talent, I tend to be prone to overestimate their ability, but ironically when I try to compensate for that I sometimes err and avoid picking riders who I support because I think I might be biased in thinking they will be a good pick. Ironically not being into cycling as much might help you make a more distanced and objective judgment when for instance assessing who are the up and coming talents which might constitute a good pick. A few years ago I knew every significant talent already and had formed opinions about them throughout the season, but now I have to actually research it a bit and maybe this actually improves the calls I make whether or not to pick a talented rider. Anyway, I don't know, just some random theorizing.
It would be interesting to have some statistic over the years to see how well players perform in this game relative to how time they actually spend watching cycling throughout the year.
To do it properly would actually be quite complex, because you can spend time on different things when watching cycling, e.g. following espoirs races or not, how much time you spend reading articles/forums etc. and you might have to take into account different types of picks, e.g. not following cycling as closely might give you an edge in objectivity when picking young talented riders, but you might be more prone to overlook a rider who underperformed due to a crash or ilness or something.Update #43: Green Jersey changes hands in final moments of the season
Well, this might be it, folks. Only 53 teams scored any points this week with mainly Hainan on offer, and Fuzhou - the last race of the year - doesn't even have any Pro Conti teams at it. There will likely be a few folks who have rare riders and pick up points, but for all intents and purposes, the game is at an end. But that doesn't mean there wasn't some drama right down to the wire. And, of course, a weekly win is a weekly win.
This Week's Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this week
1 AupaPyama 201
1 scrooll07 201
3 Magnumpti 141
4 Josedin 137
4 LukasCPH 137
Still some points to be had, and it was the two teams who took Hainan victor Jacopo Mosca that unsurprisingly prevailed this week. The young Italian rider had a respectable 124 points on his cost of 59 coming into Hainan, but exploded to become a decent overall pick with 325 on the year. AupaPyama and scrooll07 both had him, and no other riders scoring this week, and so they share first place. The three teams that had Mareczko come next, as he scored 132 this week, but whereas Josedin and LukasCPH got 5 more from Tvetcov, Magnumpti rises to the podium with the 9 extra points by Edoardo Zardini. These are the small difference makers at the end of the year.
This Week's High Movers
Rank Team up/down
1 scrooll07 (+4)
2 DJ Sprtsch (+3)
3 LukasCPH (+2)
3 CQmanager (+2)
3 HelgeBlendet (+2)
3 DFA123 (+2)
3 AupaPyama (+2)
A similar list here, and not a ton of movement, as the standings are pretty entrenched by the end of the year. Certainly, a couple of hundred points is valuable, but at the same time, some spots are separated by that much. DJ Sprtsch, not mentioned in the Top Movers, grabs second on the week in this competition with 78 points from zero-pointer Marc De Maar and 5 more from Asbjorn Kragh Andersen.
Green Jersey Competition
Rank Team Total
1 scrooll07 254
2 Blues in the bottle 249
3 fauniera 226
4 GP Blanco 222
5 the asian 221
There is drama right to the end!! After jockeying the lead back and forth between fauniera and Blues in the bottle, it seemed pretty locked up, with only 4 other teams within striking distance (ie. the max weekly 45 points) of Blues after last week. But one of those was scrooll07, who gets 40 this week for splitting top spot. This puts their team in a 5 point lead in this competition; barring even more drama from Blues or someone having an obscure rider in Fuzhou, this is a last second change in the top of the competition. Even more impressive, the rest of the contenders in this competition have been in the top 10 overall for months, whereas scooll isn't even in the top half of the table - the right picks of riders will get you points on a week-to-week basis, for sure. 6th place in the standings (Italian Gigolo) and 9th (CQManager) also scored points this week but didn't move any spots.
Top 10 Overall
Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) fauniera 15867
2 (-) the asian 15698
3 (-) GP Blanco 15217
4 (-) tom_jelte 14888
5 (+2) HelgeBlendet 14739
6 (-1) Hugo Koblet 14726
7 (-1) Kazistuta 14718
8 (-) Wallenquist 14548
8 (-) Blues in the bottle 14548
10 (-) del1962 14480
HelgeBlendet was the only team in the top 10 to get any points this week, with 30; but it was a tightly packed enough spot that their team moved up 2 spots into the top 5 in a Vino-on-the-Champs-Elysees (or, much much less dramatic but more recent, Kelderman-in-Madrid) type move. Wallenquist and Blues in the bottle look destined to remain tied in the top 10.
One more week to go in the game! Next week will be a wrap-up post. And it's November 8th, which means it's less than two months to Aussie nationals! Start your long lists if you haven't already...
Spreadsheet at dropbox
Well, this might be it, folks. Only 53 teams scored any points this week with mainly Hainan on offer, and Fuzhou - the last race of the year - doesn't even have any Pro Conti teams at it. There will likely be a few folks who have rare riders and pick up points, but for all intents and purposes, the game is at an end. But that doesn't mean there wasn't some drama right down to the wire. And, of course, a weekly win is a weekly win.
This Week's Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this week
1 AupaPyama 201
1 scrooll07 201
3 Magnumpti 141
4 Josedin 137
4 LukasCPH 137
Still some points to be had, and it was the two teams who took Hainan victor Jacopo Mosca that unsurprisingly prevailed this week. The young Italian rider had a respectable 124 points on his cost of 59 coming into Hainan, but exploded to become a decent overall pick with 325 on the year. AupaPyama and scrooll07 both had him, and no other riders scoring this week, and so they share first place. The three teams that had Mareczko come next, as he scored 132 this week, but whereas Josedin and LukasCPH got 5 more from Tvetcov, Magnumpti rises to the podium with the 9 extra points by Edoardo Zardini. These are the small difference makers at the end of the year.
This Week's High Movers
Rank Team up/down
1 scrooll07 (+4)
2 DJ Sprtsch (+3)
3 LukasCPH (+2)
3 CQmanager (+2)
3 HelgeBlendet (+2)
3 DFA123 (+2)
3 AupaPyama (+2)
A similar list here, and not a ton of movement, as the standings are pretty entrenched by the end of the year. Certainly, a couple of hundred points is valuable, but at the same time, some spots are separated by that much. DJ Sprtsch, not mentioned in the Top Movers, grabs second on the week in this competition with 78 points from zero-pointer Marc De Maar and 5 more from Asbjorn Kragh Andersen.
Green Jersey Competition
Rank Team Total
1 scrooll07 254
2 Blues in the bottle 249
3 fauniera 226
4 GP Blanco 222
5 the asian 221
There is drama right to the end!! After jockeying the lead back and forth between fauniera and Blues in the bottle, it seemed pretty locked up, with only 4 other teams within striking distance (ie. the max weekly 45 points) of Blues after last week. But one of those was scrooll07, who gets 40 this week for splitting top spot. This puts their team in a 5 point lead in this competition; barring even more drama from Blues or someone having an obscure rider in Fuzhou, this is a last second change in the top of the competition. Even more impressive, the rest of the contenders in this competition have been in the top 10 overall for months, whereas scooll isn't even in the top half of the table - the right picks of riders will get you points on a week-to-week basis, for sure. 6th place in the standings (Italian Gigolo) and 9th (CQManager) also scored points this week but didn't move any spots.
Top 10 Overall
Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) fauniera 15867
2 (-) the asian 15698
3 (-) GP Blanco 15217
4 (-) tom_jelte 14888
5 (+2) HelgeBlendet 14739
6 (-1) Hugo Koblet 14726
7 (-1) Kazistuta 14718
8 (-) Wallenquist 14548
8 (-) Blues in the bottle 14548
10 (-) del1962 14480
HelgeBlendet was the only team in the top 10 to get any points this week, with 30; but it was a tightly packed enough spot that their team moved up 2 spots into the top 5 in a Vino-on-the-Champs-Elysees (or, much much less dramatic but more recent, Kelderman-in-Madrid) type move. Wallenquist and Blues in the bottle look destined to remain tied in the top 10.
One more week to go in the game! Next week will be a wrap-up post. And it's November 8th, which means it's less than two months to Aussie nationals! Start your long lists if you haven't already...
Spreadsheet at dropbox
Here's the optimal team for the 2017 season.
Happy to see that my unique pick Julien Simon made the team.
Name Cost Score
GILBERT Philippe 777 1424
URAN URAN Rigoberto 687 1381
TRENTIN Matteo 677 1297
KWIATKOWSKI Michal 611 1516
ROGLIC Primoz 486 1308
LANDA MEANA Mikel 479 1336
POZZOVIVO Domenico 472 1035
STUYVEN Jasper 428 1064
CALMEJANE Lilian 338 894
VIVIANI Elia 275 1384
SIMON Julien 231 593
KÜNG Stefan 225 660
DILLIER Silvan 190 653
ROSON GARCIA Jaime 178 523
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley 159 766
TEUNS Dylan 150 1015
JENSEN August 130 464
PICHON Laurent 127 511
CANOLA Marco 123 905
VERMELTFOORT Coen 110 426
ALARCON GARCIA Raul 96 573
JULES Justin 87 425
TVETCOV Serghei 74 385
GIBBONS Ryan 67 357
MOSCA Jacopo 59 325
CATTANEO Mattia 55 654
DE BUYST Jasper 50 710
SEVILLA RIVERA Oscar Miguel 40 415
VAN DER POEL Mathieu 38 340
PÖSTLBERGER Lukas 36 405
CERNY Josef 19 311
THOMAS Benjamin 17 409
CARAPAZ MONTENEGRO Richard Antonio 5 349
7496 24813
Happy to see that my unique pick Julien Simon made the team.
Name Cost Score
GILBERT Philippe 777 1424
URAN URAN Rigoberto 687 1381
TRENTIN Matteo 677 1297
KWIATKOWSKI Michal 611 1516
ROGLIC Primoz 486 1308
LANDA MEANA Mikel 479 1336
POZZOVIVO Domenico 472 1035
STUYVEN Jasper 428 1064
CALMEJANE Lilian 338 894
VIVIANI Elia 275 1384
SIMON Julien 231 593
KÜNG Stefan 225 660
DILLIER Silvan 190 653
ROSON GARCIA Jaime 178 523
BERNAL GOMEZ Egan Arley 159 766
TEUNS Dylan 150 1015
JENSEN August 130 464
PICHON Laurent 127 511
CANOLA Marco 123 905
VERMELTFOORT Coen 110 426
ALARCON GARCIA Raul 96 573
JULES Justin 87 425
TVETCOV Serghei 74 385
GIBBONS Ryan 67 357
MOSCA Jacopo 59 325
CATTANEO Mattia 55 654
DE BUYST Jasper 50 710
SEVILLA RIVERA Oscar Miguel 40 415
VAN DER POEL Mathieu 38 340
PÖSTLBERGER Lukas 36 405
CERNY Josef 19 311
THOMAS Benjamin 17 409
CARAPAZ MONTENEGRO Richard Antonio 5 349
7496 24813
Thanks for the update!
Maronese finally did what I drafted him for, but I was hoping for more points earlier in the season tbh. Still, very happy to jump into the Top5 again.
Maronese finally did what I drafted him for, but I was hoping for more points earlier in the season tbh. Still, very happy to jump into the Top5 again.
Well, this has been a busy, busy year for me and I haven't been able to comment on this thread as much. Luckily (well, maybe that's the wrong word) my team has done poorly so I haven't had much to comment about. I think this finish is my worst so far - I had only had one time out of the top 25 or something before, I believe - but my team wasn't terrible or anything. I think a few factors were: that everyone is getting better at this game as time goes on, that because I had two really great years in a row I kinda let myself pick with my heart more, and also just the regular mix of bad luck and picks that seemed like a good idea but weren't great in retrospect. Here's a breakdown of my team, from guys I'm ecstatic about to guys who were a wasted pick.
Home Runs
Michal Kwiatkowski
Mikel Landa
Elia Viviani
Stefan Kung
The fact that this list is a) so small, and b) picked by an average of 76 teams kinda says it all about my year. Nevertheless, these guys were great, like lots of people knew they could be.
Right about where I expected/happy with
Vincenzo Nibali
Fabio Aru
John Degenkolb
Simone Consonni
Again, a small list, but at least there were two rare picks in Nibali and Consonni. I can't imagine how much my team would have tanked if Nibali did. I believe I made a comment at the start of the year that Nibali always gets you thinking that he'll have a terrible year, but manages to pull it out somewhere. That was what September/October was, for sure. If he had performed like I had expected/hoped in Oman, Abu Dhabi and Tirenno-Adriatico, he would have topped 2000. Either way, I'm grateful he pulled it together for a respectable finish. I will also say that thankfully most of my expensive picks fell into these 2 categories, which I think allowed me to finish no lower than I did.
I would have liked a liiiiitle more
Yves Lampaert
Phil Bauhaus
Alexis Gougeard
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
Lasse Norman Hansen
Edward Planckaert
Owain Doull
Ondrej Cink
If Lampaert had done anything in Roubaix, he would have moved up a category. Mostly a good year. Bauhaus did almost exactly what I thought he would - the quality of his win in the Dauphine showed his potential for sure. But he just didn't get enough results... a top 5 in the national championships even woulda put him over the top for me. Gougeard did okay, he was a roll of the dice because his points depend on late attacks sticking. GVK had the potential for more, especially with his TT skills. The other guys... that's fine, they are just becoming road pros. Cink just needed to finish 5 spots higher in every GC he was in.
Disappointing
Robert Gesink
Eduardo Sepulveda
EM Grosu
Simone Petilli
Carlos Betancur
Simone Ponzi
Rob Power
Filippo Ganna
A mixed bag here. Gesink looked like he was gonna do what I expected in the Tour and then bam, injured for the season. Betancur actually looked like he'd turn into a decent pick in the Vuelta, but same deal (although he only woulda moved up one category for me unless he was like top 8 overall with a stage win). Petilli I thought was gonna steadily improve, but he looks like a before-this-year Cattaneo in terms of progression and lack thereof. Power I'm willing to be patient, and Ganna too, but the others (Sepulveda, Grosu, Ponzi) I don't think will ever be the riders I thought they could be. Sepulveda is moving to the Movistar train anyway, which I think is a good fit for him - leadership doesn't seem to be working out, but he can be a good workhorse in the mold of like an Anacona. Grosu, I never thought was the best talent, but he was fast enough, on a team that would go to lots of small races, and in the last Giro stage last year I thought 'man if he could just get his timing better...' But the nadir for me came in the summer when I saw he was down for the extremely long and non-competitive Tour of Quinghai Lake, and I thought it was finally his chance to build some confidence and get some points. Instead, he got a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th out of 13 stages, losing to such luminous sprinting names as Jon Aberasturi, Dusan Rajovic, Ahmet Orken and Yevgeny Gidich. Whoops! Okay okay, I won't pick him next year.
Waste of a pick
Leopold Konig
Taylor Phinney
Matvey Mamykin
Joe Dombrowski
Tiago Machado
Benat Intxausti
Kris Boeckmans
Julian Arredondo
Adriano Malori
You know, just almost a third of my team. If you can spot a relatively common thread here, it's the 'hope for a redemption narrative to bear fruit'. I definitely let myself pick with my heart this year; part of that was a time factor, as in I ran out of time to pick my team and so didn't do those last few refining swoops over them to let my logic take hold, and part of that was that I had done really really well the last two years with two podium finishes, so I figured I'd let myself pick for riders I was hoping for, even if I didn't think it was smart. Phinney, Intxausti, Boeckmans, Arredondo, and Malori all fall into that category. Admittedly I didn't really know how poorly Intxausti's recovery was going, so I did think there'd be sporting value in that pick too, but Boeckmans and Malori, and to a certain extent Phinney, I knew they would never be the riders they were at their peak, but I hoped so I convinced myself to pick em. Arredondo too to an extent, although I thought if he made it through the prior year and didn't quit, he must have seen some light at the end of the tunnel. The other guys on the list - Konig I couldn't have predicted would take the whole season to get back, Dombrowski at least had that one year where he showed his promise, and Machado it turns out is just in decline rather than coming off a bad year. I'm truly puzzled by Mamykin, as he looked so great at the Vuelta 2016. But sometimes that just happens. Either way, it's hard to not imagine a team where I picked Bernal and Carapaz instead of Dombro and Malori, for starters.
Ah well, it was a fun year to follow still, and I really enjoy the updates (even if it's all I have time to do and sometimes not for a few days), and of course I love the early season team reveals, discussion, and anticipation. Can't wait to get it started again.
Home Runs
Michal Kwiatkowski
Mikel Landa
Elia Viviani
Stefan Kung
The fact that this list is a) so small, and b) picked by an average of 76 teams kinda says it all about my year. Nevertheless, these guys were great, like lots of people knew they could be.
Right about where I expected/happy with
Vincenzo Nibali
Fabio Aru
John Degenkolb
Simone Consonni
Again, a small list, but at least there were two rare picks in Nibali and Consonni. I can't imagine how much my team would have tanked if Nibali did. I believe I made a comment at the start of the year that Nibali always gets you thinking that he'll have a terrible year, but manages to pull it out somewhere. That was what September/October was, for sure. If he had performed like I had expected/hoped in Oman, Abu Dhabi and Tirenno-Adriatico, he would have topped 2000. Either way, I'm grateful he pulled it together for a respectable finish. I will also say that thankfully most of my expensive picks fell into these 2 categories, which I think allowed me to finish no lower than I did.
I would have liked a liiiiitle more
Yves Lampaert
Phil Bauhaus
Alexis Gougeard
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
Lasse Norman Hansen
Edward Planckaert
Owain Doull
Ondrej Cink
If Lampaert had done anything in Roubaix, he would have moved up a category. Mostly a good year. Bauhaus did almost exactly what I thought he would - the quality of his win in the Dauphine showed his potential for sure. But he just didn't get enough results... a top 5 in the national championships even woulda put him over the top for me. Gougeard did okay, he was a roll of the dice because his points depend on late attacks sticking. GVK had the potential for more, especially with his TT skills. The other guys... that's fine, they are just becoming road pros. Cink just needed to finish 5 spots higher in every GC he was in.
Disappointing
Robert Gesink
Eduardo Sepulveda
EM Grosu
Simone Petilli
Carlos Betancur
Simone Ponzi
Rob Power
Filippo Ganna
A mixed bag here. Gesink looked like he was gonna do what I expected in the Tour and then bam, injured for the season. Betancur actually looked like he'd turn into a decent pick in the Vuelta, but same deal (although he only woulda moved up one category for me unless he was like top 8 overall with a stage win). Petilli I thought was gonna steadily improve, but he looks like a before-this-year Cattaneo in terms of progression and lack thereof. Power I'm willing to be patient, and Ganna too, but the others (Sepulveda, Grosu, Ponzi) I don't think will ever be the riders I thought they could be. Sepulveda is moving to the Movistar train anyway, which I think is a good fit for him - leadership doesn't seem to be working out, but he can be a good workhorse in the mold of like an Anacona. Grosu, I never thought was the best talent, but he was fast enough, on a team that would go to lots of small races, and in the last Giro stage last year I thought 'man if he could just get his timing better...' But the nadir for me came in the summer when I saw he was down for the extremely long and non-competitive Tour of Quinghai Lake, and I thought it was finally his chance to build some confidence and get some points. Instead, he got a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th out of 13 stages, losing to such luminous sprinting names as Jon Aberasturi, Dusan Rajovic, Ahmet Orken and Yevgeny Gidich. Whoops! Okay okay, I won't pick him next year.
Waste of a pick
Leopold Konig
Taylor Phinney
Matvey Mamykin
Joe Dombrowski
Tiago Machado
Benat Intxausti
Kris Boeckmans
Julian Arredondo
Adriano Malori
You know, just almost a third of my team. If you can spot a relatively common thread here, it's the 'hope for a redemption narrative to bear fruit'. I definitely let myself pick with my heart this year; part of that was a time factor, as in I ran out of time to pick my team and so didn't do those last few refining swoops over them to let my logic take hold, and part of that was that I had done really really well the last two years with two podium finishes, so I figured I'd let myself pick for riders I was hoping for, even if I didn't think it was smart. Phinney, Intxausti, Boeckmans, Arredondo, and Malori all fall into that category. Admittedly I didn't really know how poorly Intxausti's recovery was going, so I did think there'd be sporting value in that pick too, but Boeckmans and Malori, and to a certain extent Phinney, I knew they would never be the riders they were at their peak, but I hoped so I convinced myself to pick em. Arredondo too to an extent, although I thought if he made it through the prior year and didn't quit, he must have seen some light at the end of the tunnel. The other guys on the list - Konig I couldn't have predicted would take the whole season to get back, Dombrowski at least had that one year where he showed his promise, and Machado it turns out is just in decline rather than coming off a bad year. I'm truly puzzled by Mamykin, as he looked so great at the Vuelta 2016. But sometimes that just happens. Either way, it's hard to not imagine a team where I picked Bernal and Carapaz instead of Dombro and Malori, for starters.
Ah well, it was a fun year to follow still, and I really enjoy the updates (even if it's all I have time to do and sometimes not for a few days), and of course I love the early season team reveals, discussion, and anticipation. Can't wait to get it started again.
skidmark said:
Ditto, already have a long list of possible inclusions - playing the lazy game and waiting for the official spreadsheet before narrowing it down.
Thanks for hosting this variety of games, skidmark!
Thanks for hosting and congrats to Fauniera! Looking forward to improving on 51st next year!
The Porte crash did not help this year but so didn't picks like Tsatevich, Konig, Boeckmans, Intxausti etc (just too many of those picks with low yields). Also high scoring riders like Roglic, Kung, Uran and co were never considered so congrats to those that picked them.
The Porte crash did not help this year but so didn't picks like Tsatevich, Konig, Boeckmans, Intxausti etc (just too many of those picks with low yields). Also high scoring riders like Roglic, Kung, Uran and co were never considered so congrats to those that picked them.
Update #44: The End
The final .1 or above race of the season, Tour of Fuzhou, took place last week, and nary a pro conti team was to be seen. There wasn't much expectation for riders in this game to score, but with 130 teams it's always possible that someone picked an obscure rider that ended up racing this late in the season in Asia. Let's see, shall we?
This Week's Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this week
1 VeloRooms 10
That's right! One team scored this week, and everyone else tied for second. Unique pick Dadi Suryadi nearly doubled his points on the season (he has 23 total) to propel VeloRooms to the final spot of glory for the year. Their team did need over 150 points to move from 103rd to 102nd though, so there was no movement in the charts and thus no High Movers for the week.
Monthly Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this month
1 Josedin 1381
2 rote_laterne 1261
3 tom_jelte 1232
4 PunchingRouleur 1219
5 ItalianGigolo 1161
This is a bit of cheating - it's from the start of October until now, but I figured it'd be good to summarize who had a good season close in this final post. Josedin had a convincingly good month and a half, anchored by Mareczko piling on the late season points as he is wont to do (423 of his 634 total), but also from solid performances in Lombardia and China by Alaphilippe, Aru, and Gaviria (all around or over 200 points). rote_laterne had a great finish too, from a number of sources - no Alaphilippe or Mareczko, and only Aru/Gaviria/Dani Martinez/Theuns over 100 points for the month. But a bunch of guys like Cort/Jans/SK Andersen above 75 points, and a handful in the 50s and 60s. It takes a team. tom_jelte had a blistering finish too, to climb up the higher echelons of the overall standings.
Monthly High Movers
Rank Team Up/down this month
1 rote_laterne (+21)
2 Kjellus (+14)
2 zlev11 (+14)
4 Brullnux (+13)
4 PunchingRouleur (+13)
4 laarsland (+13)
Not as many wild swings towards the end of the season, but still some movement to be had. rote_laterne goes a step higher than the scorers list; Kjellus and zlev11 tie for the last podium spots of the year.
Green Jersey Final Standings
Rank Team Total
1 scrooll07 254
2 Blues in the bottle 249
3 fauniera 226
4 GP Blanco 222
5 the asian 221
6 ItalianGigolo 215.2
7 Kazistuta 197
8 tom_jelte 193
9 CQmanager 187.2
10 zlev11 175
It was mentioned last week, but congrats to scrooll07 who pulls out victory in the jersey competition in the last real possible week! The points from a top finish in Hainan led their team to overtake the rest of the top 5, which was heavily populated with those teams already in the top 10 overall.
Final Overall Standings
Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) fauniera 15867
2 (-) the asian 15698
3 (-) GP Blanco 15217
4 (-) tom_jelte 14888
5 (-) HelgeBlendet 14739
6 (-) Hugo Koblet 14726
7 (-) Kazistuta 14718
8 (-) Wallenquist 14548
8 (-) Blues in the bottle 14548
10 (-) del1962 14480
11 (-) Squire 14313
12 (-) Hakkie2 14250
13 (-) Popchu 14186
14 (-) Object 14019
15 (-) AlyKaptan 14018
16 (-) Gigs_98 13956
17 (-) Geraint Too Fast 13902
18 (-) Maaaaaaaarten 13855
19 (-) vladimir 13789
20 (-) search 13775
It's official - fauniera has taken the 2017 title in the CQ Ranking Manager Game! the asian had the lead for awhile, but it seemed an inevitability as the Vuelta wore on and Lombardia approached that fauniera had more riders still racing at a high level, and in the last month things solidified. Still, congrats to the asian on a fantastic season, as well as GP Blanco, who led for a long time in the middle of the season and was always around the top. tom_jelte had a fantastic run at the end to finish 4th; game founder Hugo Koblet ended with a top 10; there was a tie for 8th place overall; frequent thread contributor and thoughtful CQ analyst Squire finished just outside the top 10; frequent high finisher Geraint Too Fast scored another solid top 20; and really everyone on this list picked well this year - finishing in the top 20 in this comprehensive game is no mean feat. Thanks all, and congrats to the winner!
Final spreadsheet for posterity's sake
The final .1 or above race of the season, Tour of Fuzhou, took place last week, and nary a pro conti team was to be seen. There wasn't much expectation for riders in this game to score, but with 130 teams it's always possible that someone picked an obscure rider that ended up racing this late in the season in Asia. Let's see, shall we?
This Week's Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this week
1 VeloRooms 10
That's right! One team scored this week, and everyone else tied for second. Unique pick Dadi Suryadi nearly doubled his points on the season (he has 23 total) to propel VeloRooms to the final spot of glory for the year. Their team did need over 150 points to move from 103rd to 102nd though, so there was no movement in the charts and thus no High Movers for the week.
Monthly Top Scorers
Rank Team Points this month
1 Josedin 1381
2 rote_laterne 1261
3 tom_jelte 1232
4 PunchingRouleur 1219
5 ItalianGigolo 1161
This is a bit of cheating - it's from the start of October until now, but I figured it'd be good to summarize who had a good season close in this final post. Josedin had a convincingly good month and a half, anchored by Mareczko piling on the late season points as he is wont to do (423 of his 634 total), but also from solid performances in Lombardia and China by Alaphilippe, Aru, and Gaviria (all around or over 200 points). rote_laterne had a great finish too, from a number of sources - no Alaphilippe or Mareczko, and only Aru/Gaviria/Dani Martinez/Theuns over 100 points for the month. But a bunch of guys like Cort/Jans/SK Andersen above 75 points, and a handful in the 50s and 60s. It takes a team. tom_jelte had a blistering finish too, to climb up the higher echelons of the overall standings.
Monthly High Movers
Rank Team Up/down this month
1 rote_laterne (+21)
2 Kjellus (+14)
2 zlev11 (+14)
4 Brullnux (+13)
4 PunchingRouleur (+13)
4 laarsland (+13)
Not as many wild swings towards the end of the season, but still some movement to be had. rote_laterne goes a step higher than the scorers list; Kjellus and zlev11 tie for the last podium spots of the year.
Green Jersey Final Standings
Rank Team Total
1 scrooll07 254
2 Blues in the bottle 249
3 fauniera 226
4 GP Blanco 222
5 the asian 221
6 ItalianGigolo 215.2
7 Kazistuta 197
8 tom_jelte 193
9 CQmanager 187.2
10 zlev11 175
It was mentioned last week, but congrats to scrooll07 who pulls out victory in the jersey competition in the last real possible week! The points from a top finish in Hainan led their team to overtake the rest of the top 5, which was heavily populated with those teams already in the top 10 overall.
Final Overall Standings
Rank Up/down Team Points
1 (-) fauniera 15867
2 (-) the asian 15698
3 (-) GP Blanco 15217
4 (-) tom_jelte 14888
5 (-) HelgeBlendet 14739
6 (-) Hugo Koblet 14726
7 (-) Kazistuta 14718
8 (-) Wallenquist 14548
8 (-) Blues in the bottle 14548
10 (-) del1962 14480
11 (-) Squire 14313
12 (-) Hakkie2 14250
13 (-) Popchu 14186
14 (-) Object 14019
15 (-) AlyKaptan 14018
16 (-) Gigs_98 13956
17 (-) Geraint Too Fast 13902
18 (-) Maaaaaaaarten 13855
19 (-) vladimir 13789
20 (-) search 13775
It's official - fauniera has taken the 2017 title in the CQ Ranking Manager Game! the asian had the lead for awhile, but it seemed an inevitability as the Vuelta wore on and Lombardia approached that fauniera had more riders still racing at a high level, and in the last month things solidified. Still, congrats to the asian on a fantastic season, as well as GP Blanco, who led for a long time in the middle of the season and was always around the top. tom_jelte had a fantastic run at the end to finish 4th; game founder Hugo Koblet ended with a top 10; there was a tie for 8th place overall; frequent thread contributor and thoughtful CQ analyst Squire finished just outside the top 10; frequent high finisher Geraint Too Fast scored another solid top 20; and really everyone on this list picked well this year - finishing in the top 20 in this comprehensive game is no mean feat. Thanks all, and congrats to the winner!
Final spreadsheet for posterity's sake
Congratulations to fauniera, and a big thank you to skidmark for organizing the game. I am quite satisified with my "ninja" year. Finished 19th which is equal to my highest ranking this year. And I am quite sure I wasn't mantioned in any of the weekly updates (109th in green jersey ranking) :razz:
Team for 2018 almost ready!!!
Team for 2018 almost ready!!!
Thanks for organising and updating, skidmark!
Congrats to fauniera and everyone else who's happy with the performance of his/her team this year!
Never thought Top5 would be possible for me early in the season. Luckily, Teuns happened...
Looking back, I guess the one thing that really helped is probably the fact that Gesink is the only relatively rare pick (< 40 teams) that didn't turn into profit (369 -> 318 on 22 teams). Even then it's not too bad of a return...
Besides Teuns, guys lke Küng, Dillier, Carapaz, Kämna, Van Keirsbulck, and even Boom had some nice improvements and weren't picked by too many teams. Also nice to hit on all those "expensive" guys (> 400) in Aru, Kwiatkowski, Benoot, Degenkolb, and Landa. Benoot only improving by 225 points is almost disappointing, but I definitely won't complaing about that.
Looking forward to next year! Time to prove it's been more luck than knowledge for me so far.
Congrats to fauniera and everyone else who's happy with the performance of his/her team this year!
Never thought Top5 would be possible for me early in the season. Luckily, Teuns happened...
Looking back, I guess the one thing that really helped is probably the fact that Gesink is the only relatively rare pick (< 40 teams) that didn't turn into profit (369 -> 318 on 22 teams). Even then it's not too bad of a return...
Besides Teuns, guys lke Küng, Dillier, Carapaz, Kämna, Van Keirsbulck, and even Boom had some nice improvements and weren't picked by too many teams. Also nice to hit on all those "expensive" guys (> 400) in Aru, Kwiatkowski, Benoot, Degenkolb, and Landa. Benoot only improving by 225 points is almost disappointing, but I definitely won't complaing about that.
Looking forward to next year! Time to prove it's been more luck than knowledge for me so far.
Also a big thanks from me and mad propz to Fauniera. Personally I can take pleasure in my highest placing ever, continuing my string of steady results in the yearly competition. Maybe I should just quit dreaming about the GT games, where I use to suck?
Already have a long list of names made during the year, but quite a lot made amends in the last two months of the season and need to be reevaluated.
Already have a long list of names made during the year, but quite a lot made amends in the last two months of the season and need to be reevaluated.
Thanks everybody for the great season. Being my first attempt, I'm very happy with the 22nd place. Looking to improve next year.
Not very happy with my 95th position but at least I won the Green Jersey competition,which is better than nothing
Yes, thanks to the organizers for this and congratulations to fauniera on his victory. I'm already looking forward to next year encouraged by my sixth place this year. Perhaps we should consider ending the game earlier next year? Personally I don't see much point waiting for the last Chinese race to finish.
This seems to be the right time to post an updated version of the all-time lists I posted last year!
Top overall score
Rank, name, total score
1 (-) skidmark 97581
2 (-) Kazistuta 92984
3 (-) MADRAZO 90990
4 (+3) Hugo Koblet 90456
5 (-) EvansIsTheBest 89411
6 (+3) Armchair cyclist 87306
7 (+1) will10 86754
8 (+2) Ferminal 85638
9 (+2) Jancouver 83849
10 (+2) Jpettersen 83479
Kazistuta cuts away almost 2000 points from skidmark's advantage, but the all-time leader is still far ahead of the pack. mc_mountain and ingsve have disappeared from the all-time top 10 after not participating this year.
Average placement (3+ participations)
Rank, name, (no. of participations), average placement
1 (-) Geraint Too Fast (6) 16,2
2 (+1) The Hitch (5) 16,4
3 (-1) skidmark (7) 21
4 (+2) Kazistuta (7) 23
5 (-) gustienordic (4) 24
6 (+5) Squire (5) 25
7 (-) Nyssinator (3) 26
8 (+1) Cykeltyven (3) 27
9 (+1) bicing (4) 28
10 (+2) TeoSheva (3) 30
Geraint Too Consistent keeps his lead in the average placements. skidmark's bad season sees him drop behind The Hitch. Sometimes it can help your standings if you don't participate, it seems.
Now for the casualties. freshman, who was 4th in this list last year after three solid participations, tumbles down to 12th after an anonymous 58th in 2017. The top 10 also loses Kjellus, whose 59th this year takes him down from 8th to 18th. Kjellus' average placing drops from 26 to 35.
Top weekly scores
Rank, name, weekly score, (after which race)
1 Ben1376 2146 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
2 fauniera 2101 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
3 CQmanager 2063 (Tour de France 2015)
4 Kwibus 1962 (Vuelta a Espana 2011)
5 kurtinsc 1940 (Vuelta a Espana 2011)
6 Milanello 1930 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
7 Ruvu75 1899 (Tour de France 2015)
8 highoctane 1885 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
9 Slow_Rider 1875 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
10 MCardinalR 1874 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
No new entries in the top 10 this year. scrooll07's post-TdF score is the highest of the year: 1549 points. That's only good enough for 45th in the list of all-time highest weekly scores.
Top yearly scores
Rank, name, yearly score, (year)
1 skidmark 19372 (2012)
2 Kvinto 18106 (2012)
3 Nyssinator 17785 (2012)
4 FF'Wilco 17116 (2012)
5 TeoSheva 17096 (2012)
6 Armchair cyclist 17092 (2012)
7 EvansIsTheBest 16911 (2012)
8 mc_mountain 16479 (2012)
9 shalgo 16446 (2012)
10 Netserk 16319 (2012)
The 2012 dominance is still not broken, but fauniera's winning score of 15867 is not too shabby. It's the 17th highest yearly score of all time, and the 2nd highest non-2012 year (only beaten by Cykeltyven's 16209 points which won them the game in 2015). the asian's haul of 15698 this year is good enough for 20th of all time, and the 3rd best non-2012 score.
Most popular picks
Rank, name, percentage of teams, (year)
1 BOONEN Tom 92,0 % (2014)
2 KITTEL Marcel 91,7 % (2016)
3 SCHLECK Andy 90 % (2013)
4 HUSHOVD Thor 89 % (2013)
5 DEGENKOLB John 89 % (2017)
6 HENAO MONTOYA Sergio Luis 86 % (2015)
7 EWAN Caleb 85 % (2015)
8 SCHLECK Andy 85 % (2014)
9 BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 84 % (2016)
10 BRESCHEL Matti 83 % (2012)
This year John Degenkolb turned out to be the 5th most obvious pick of all time. Elia Viviani was high on the list too, having been picked by 79% of the 2017 teams.
On 18 occasions has a rider been picked by more than 3/4ths of all teams in a year. Andy Schleck is the only one to have had this honour twice.
Top overall picks
Rank, name, overall picks
1 (+2) DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd 325
2 (-1) PHINNEY Taylor 316
3 (+1) BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 296
4 (-2) GOSS Matthew 289
5 (-) MOSER Moreno 270
6 (-) SCHLECK Andy 257
7 (-) BOONEN Tom 252
8 (+1) EWAN Caleb 248
9 (+22) ARU Fabio 236
10 (-2) HENAO MONTOYA Sergio Luis 215
What is it with CQ managers and Americans?
None of the hopeless cases that make up the top 5 have been the most picked in a single year, but have been high on the list for many editions. "He will have his breakthrough this year, it has to be this year!"
Best rookie
Year, name, placing
2012 Nyssinator 3rd
2013 SteelyDan 1st
2014 Cykeltyven 2nd
2015 snccdcno 3rd
2016 abbulf 3rd
2017 SafeBet 22nd
Trivia
skidmark is the only player to double the value of his team on more than one occasion - and he has done it three times!
In their six participations, Geraint Too Fast has never finished outside the top 30. This year they did it again (17th). Nobody comes close to such consistency.
If we look past the rather meaningless last weekly update of 2016 (with like one small Chinese race), skidmark comfortably won the 2016 game by placing in the weekly top 10 just once, and that was a 9th place! Zubeldia would be proud.
This year we lost another three of the ever presents, as ingsve, mc_mountain and trotters aotearoa didn't take part. There are now only 16 people who have participated in all seven editions of the game.
No weekly score outside the end week for a GT has ever reached 1500 points.
2016 is the only year where the top weekly score hasn't come after a GT: 1387 points for Kjellus after Tour de Suisse.
fauniera's victory in the CQ game 2017 marks the first time that the most popular team wins the game.
There's often been a strong relationship between 1st and 2nd place in either the overall rankings or the popularity rankings: Both times skidmark has won the game, his team was 2nd in the popularity ranking. Both Cykeltyven (2014) and Kvinto (2012) finished 2nd overall when they were 1st in the popularity rankings.
The all-time master of popularity is The Hitch, whose placings in the popularity rankings in the five editions they participated read: 7th, 5th, 1st, 4th, 2nd.
skidmark is not far behind: His teams have been in the top 10 of the popularity ranking five times, and the two non-top 10s were a 12th and an 18th place.
As of last year, as many as 59 riders had been picked at least once every year of the game. This year, that number took a huge hit. As of 2017, only 31 riders have been in the game every year. One rider (Sylwester Szmyd) survived in this list even though he retired at the end of 2016. Maybe Tigerion was hoping for a comeback?
Among the riders who have been picked at least once every year, Juraj Sagan has the fewest total picks: 15. That could mean he has one or two very faithful fans.
Marcel Kittel has the record for the most points earned in one season across all players who picked him, with 136488 points in 2016.
Tom Boonen's net score of 206108 points is the highest in the game, highly influenced by his successful 2012 and 2014 seasons both coming on the back of very unsuccessful seasons (which made him a popular and cheap pick for those years).
Carlos Betancur has incurred the biggest net loss of points in the game (counting both profitable and non-profitable seasons): -32974 points! It's worth noting that Betancur has turned a profit for four of the seven seasons he's been in the CQ game.
Carlos Betancur also has the single biggest loss-incurring season: Losing a total of 39228 points in 2015. Ricco's 2011 is in second place with a total loss of 30744 points for all players combined (-31752 if we go by the rules that was in place in 2011: That riders caught doping lost all their scored points).
Top overall score
Rank, name, total score
1 (-) skidmark 97581
2 (-) Kazistuta 92984
3 (-) MADRAZO 90990
4 (+3) Hugo Koblet 90456
5 (-) EvansIsTheBest 89411
6 (+3) Armchair cyclist 87306
7 (+1) will10 86754
8 (+2) Ferminal 85638
9 (+2) Jancouver 83849
10 (+2) Jpettersen 83479
Kazistuta cuts away almost 2000 points from skidmark's advantage, but the all-time leader is still far ahead of the pack. mc_mountain and ingsve have disappeared from the all-time top 10 after not participating this year.
Average placement (3+ participations)
Rank, name, (no. of participations), average placement
1 (-) Geraint Too Fast (6) 16,2
2 (+1) The Hitch (5) 16,4
3 (-1) skidmark (7) 21
4 (+2) Kazistuta (7) 23
5 (-) gustienordic (4) 24
6 (+5) Squire (5) 25
7 (-) Nyssinator (3) 26
8 (+1) Cykeltyven (3) 27
9 (+1) bicing (4) 28
10 (+2) TeoSheva (3) 30
Geraint Too Consistent keeps his lead in the average placements. skidmark's bad season sees him drop behind The Hitch. Sometimes it can help your standings if you don't participate, it seems.
Now for the casualties. freshman, who was 4th in this list last year after three solid participations, tumbles down to 12th after an anonymous 58th in 2017. The top 10 also loses Kjellus, whose 59th this year takes him down from 8th to 18th. Kjellus' average placing drops from 26 to 35.
Top weekly scores
Rank, name, weekly score, (after which race)
1 Ben1376 2146 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
2 fauniera 2101 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
3 CQmanager 2063 (Tour de France 2015)
4 Kwibus 1962 (Vuelta a Espana 2011)
5 kurtinsc 1940 (Vuelta a Espana 2011)
6 Milanello 1930 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
7 Ruvu75 1899 (Tour de France 2015)
8 highoctane 1885 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
9 Slow_Rider 1875 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
10 MCardinalR 1874 (Giro d'Italia 2014)
No new entries in the top 10 this year. scrooll07's post-TdF score is the highest of the year: 1549 points. That's only good enough for 45th in the list of all-time highest weekly scores.
Top yearly scores
Rank, name, yearly score, (year)
1 skidmark 19372 (2012)
2 Kvinto 18106 (2012)
3 Nyssinator 17785 (2012)
4 FF'Wilco 17116 (2012)
5 TeoSheva 17096 (2012)
6 Armchair cyclist 17092 (2012)
7 EvansIsTheBest 16911 (2012)
8 mc_mountain 16479 (2012)
9 shalgo 16446 (2012)
10 Netserk 16319 (2012)
The 2012 dominance is still not broken, but fauniera's winning score of 15867 is not too shabby. It's the 17th highest yearly score of all time, and the 2nd highest non-2012 year (only beaten by Cykeltyven's 16209 points which won them the game in 2015). the asian's haul of 15698 this year is good enough for 20th of all time, and the 3rd best non-2012 score.
Most popular picks
Rank, name, percentage of teams, (year)
1 BOONEN Tom 92,0 % (2014)
2 KITTEL Marcel 91,7 % (2016)
3 SCHLECK Andy 90 % (2013)
4 HUSHOVD Thor 89 % (2013)
5 DEGENKOLB John 89 % (2017)
6 HENAO MONTOYA Sergio Luis 86 % (2015)
7 EWAN Caleb 85 % (2015)
8 SCHLECK Andy 85 % (2014)
9 BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 84 % (2016)
10 BRESCHEL Matti 83 % (2012)
This year John Degenkolb turned out to be the 5th most obvious pick of all time. Elia Viviani was high on the list too, having been picked by 79% of the 2017 teams.
On 18 occasions has a rider been picked by more than 3/4ths of all teams in a year. Andy Schleck is the only one to have had this honour twice.
Top overall picks
Rank, name, overall picks
1 (+2) DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd 325
2 (-1) PHINNEY Taylor 316
3 (+1) BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto 296
4 (-2) GOSS Matthew 289
5 (-) MOSER Moreno 270
6 (-) SCHLECK Andy 257
7 (-) BOONEN Tom 252
8 (+1) EWAN Caleb 248
9 (+22) ARU Fabio 236
10 (-2) HENAO MONTOYA Sergio Luis 215
What is it with CQ managers and Americans?
None of the hopeless cases that make up the top 5 have been the most picked in a single year, but have been high on the list for many editions. "He will have his breakthrough this year, it has to be this year!"
Best rookie
Year, name, placing
2012 Nyssinator 3rd
2013 SteelyDan 1st
2014 Cykeltyven 2nd
2015 snccdcno 3rd
2016 abbulf 3rd
2017 SafeBet 22nd
Trivia
skidmark is the only player to double the value of his team on more than one occasion - and he has done it three times!
In their six participations, Geraint Too Fast has never finished outside the top 30. This year they did it again (17th). Nobody comes close to such consistency.
If we look past the rather meaningless last weekly update of 2016 (with like one small Chinese race), skidmark comfortably won the 2016 game by placing in the weekly top 10 just once, and that was a 9th place! Zubeldia would be proud.
This year we lost another three of the ever presents, as ingsve, mc_mountain and trotters aotearoa didn't take part. There are now only 16 people who have participated in all seven editions of the game.
No weekly score outside the end week for a GT has ever reached 1500 points.
2016 is the only year where the top weekly score hasn't come after a GT: 1387 points for Kjellus after Tour de Suisse.
fauniera's victory in the CQ game 2017 marks the first time that the most popular team wins the game.
There's often been a strong relationship between 1st and 2nd place in either the overall rankings or the popularity rankings: Both times skidmark has won the game, his team was 2nd in the popularity ranking. Both Cykeltyven (2014) and Kvinto (2012) finished 2nd overall when they were 1st in the popularity rankings.
The all-time master of popularity is The Hitch, whose placings in the popularity rankings in the five editions they participated read: 7th, 5th, 1st, 4th, 2nd.
skidmark is not far behind: His teams have been in the top 10 of the popularity ranking five times, and the two non-top 10s were a 12th and an 18th place.
As of last year, as many as 59 riders had been picked at least once every year of the game. This year, that number took a huge hit. As of 2017, only 31 riders have been in the game every year. One rider (Sylwester Szmyd) survived in this list even though he retired at the end of 2016. Maybe Tigerion was hoping for a comeback?
Among the riders who have been picked at least once every year, Juraj Sagan has the fewest total picks: 15. That could mean he has one or two very faithful fans.
Marcel Kittel has the record for the most points earned in one season across all players who picked him, with 136488 points in 2016.
Tom Boonen's net score of 206108 points is the highest in the game, highly influenced by his successful 2012 and 2014 seasons both coming on the back of very unsuccessful seasons (which made him a popular and cheap pick for those years).
Carlos Betancur has incurred the biggest net loss of points in the game (counting both profitable and non-profitable seasons): -32974 points! It's worth noting that Betancur has turned a profit for four of the seven seasons he's been in the CQ game.
Carlos Betancur also has the single biggest loss-incurring season: Losing a total of 39228 points in 2015. Ricco's 2011 is in second place with a total loss of 30744 points for all players combined (-31752 if we go by the rules that was in place in 2011: That riders caught doping lost all their scored points).
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